By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

After enduring 10 months of near-total confinement inside her apartment, the bit of soreness in her upper arm was well worth it for Patricia Langsford.

Twenty-four hours earlier – on Jan. 6 – the 80-year-old had received the first shot of the two-part Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 from a visiting pharmacist from Slidell’s Medicine Shoppe, from the convenience of a chair outside her front door.

Relaxing in her cozy apartment at St. Teresa’s Villa, a 75-unit Christopher Homes property in Slidell, Langsford said she was looking forward to the heightened confidence of knowing she was safe from contracting COVID-19 and spreading it to others.

“When they came here to offer us the shot, I decided I would rather get the shot than to face the disease itself – the virus,” said Langsford, one of 48 St. Teresa’s residents and five staff who took advantage of the recent vaccination opportunity.

Christopher Homes, the low-income senior housing ministry of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, is working with local health leaders and pharmacies to coordinate the administration of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to its residents, using a “house call” model in which pharmacists go door-to-door to administer the vaccine to residents who want it, rather than their having to travel to an outside location.

Before signing up for the vaccine, Langsford, who has heart-related issues, did her due diligence. She had her blood work done by her cardiologist and filled out the required health questionnaire.

“My doctor said go ahead and get the shot because you don’t want to get that virus,” said Langsford, who is grateful she didn’t have to wait in a public space for the vaccine.

“This was a godsend because I can’t stand up for long periods of time and I can’t walk too far of a distance,” she said. “I just brought a chair to my door, they talked to me and they gave me the shot.”

More to come

The vaccination roll-out follows months of efforts to keep senior residents healthy through mitigation efforts and convenient, on-site COVID testing, said Deacon Dennis Adams, executive director of Christopher Homes, which manages 21 properties that house 2,500 residents ages 62 and older.

Residents and staff of 115-unit Place Dubourg in LaPlace were the next Christopher Homes residents to receive the on-site vaccines. On Jan. 8, 11 and 12, pharmacists from the Medicine Shoppe in LaPlace administered first-round vaccinations to about 85 residents and five staff.

Deacon Adams said the two properties represent “an exciting first step” in the process of offering vaccinations to residents at every Christopher Homes site. Additional pharmacies have contacted Christopher Homes with a plan to offer another 360 vaccines, which will cover Christopher Inn, Mater Dolorosa, Delille Inn and St. Martin’s Manor. Vaccines for Metairie Manor and Nazareth Inn also are being planned, although the number was not available at press time.

Feeling of ‘freedom’

The difficult quarantine of the previous year also gave St. Teresa’s residents an incentive to opt in. For most of the pandemic, no outside visitors, other than essential care and home health workers, were allowed inside the property, and residents could only leave for medical appointments. The restrictions recently loosened up to allow two visitors per apartment on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Residents can also visit outdoors, while masked and socially distanced, for a couple of hours each evening.

Langsford filled her months of isolation with TV, novels and crochet. On Sundays, the parishioner of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Pearl River watches the livestreamed Mass from St. Louis Cathedral. One quarantine highlight came last September, when Langsford’s daughter dropped off a cake for her mother’s milestone 80th birthday.

St. Teresa’s Ralph Friend, a spry 89-year-old and self-described “people person” said he is looking forward to more time with his daughter and his buddies after he completes the two-part vaccination process on Jan. 23.

“I’m free! I’m free!” exclaimed Friend, who has kept fit during the quarantine by reading his Bible and walking St. Teresa’s grounds three miles a day. He advises people to “get the shot yesterday.”

“Don’t wait!” Friend said. “I feel like going out to walk three more miles now!”

St. Teresa’s Sandra Bonilla called the vaccine “a blessing.”

“Some of my family is apprehensive about the vaccine, so I’m doing this to show them that it’s OK,” Bonilla said.

Meanwhile, Langsford, who said she gets angry at those “who have no consideration for other people” by not wearing a mask, offered some blunt advice to her peers: “Go and get the doggone shot!”

bdonze@clarionherald.org